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Apologies for my absence. As many of you know, withauthority.com was
down for a number of days. I still have not heard back about the cause
of the trouble. I want to thank Otto & Chris for offering me a chance
to relocate to The Wrestling Channel Online, but now that WA is back
to life, I no longer see a need to move.
I have updated the interface to my tape list, adding just a little bit
of pizazz to the layout. I don't want tape data files to grow large,
since that portion of my web site is meant for browsing around, but
things are spruced up a bit now. The tape data pages are still
generated by a program I've hacked together. Everything looked alright
to me, so if you come across something weird, please drop me some
e-mail.
I will try to answer all of my accumulated e-mail this week.
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- WCW has Halloween Havoc took place on 10/26/97. Overall the show has
to get a thumbs up, even though the main event was farcical. The first
three matches of the show basically guaranteed the positive rating,
with Guerrero vs. Misterio Jr. being a strong North American match of
the year contender. Quick rundown:
* Yuji Nagata beat Ultimo Dragon: Nagata is a solid worker, who will
probably never be used all that well by this promotion. In this
match, Nagata & Dragon did a lot of things that fans in North
America just aren't educated enough to see. Even with Mike Tenay
trying to describe what was happening, I doubt that people will
give this match the respect it deserves. It was a very solid
opener with a great story line. Dragon kept trying for the dragon
sleeper, but because Nagata had worked over his arm most of the
match, he didn't have the strength to keep the hold. During his
final attempt at the hold, Nagata hit a reversal into an armbar
submission for the clean tap out finish. Afterwards, Nagata &
Sonny Onoo "broke Dragon's arm." Dragon actually does need some
work done on his elbow. A very good opener.
* Chris Jericho beat Gedo: Gedo is one of my least-like junior
heavyweight style wrestlers, so it will be disappointing if WCW
chooses to bring him in for a lengthy stint, considering what
other wrestlers they could choose. Anyhow, he and Jericho can work
well with each other and had a pretty darn good match. Tenay tried
hard again. Heenan & Schiavone had no clue. There were a couple of
very dangerous looking spots near the finish. A second very good
match.
* Eddie Guerrero lost the the Cruiserweight Title to Rey Misterio
Jr.: An easy match of the year contender. Guerrero was on fire and
Rey was his usual self. The match had a great mix of everything.
They started out fast and seemed to never slow down, except for a
short rest spot in the middle.
* Alex Wright beat Steve McMichael: Another bad match. McMichael
really stinks. The storyline had Bill Goldberg come in to lay out
Mongo and give Alex the win. Goldberg then left both laying.
* Jacquelyn beat Disco Inferno: A horrible match. It went on way too
long, presumably in an effort to keep some of Disco's credibility
by making it clear that he didn't want to hit or hurt Jackie. A
total waste of time.
* Curt Hennig beat Ric Flair by DQ: Pretty unexciting. The story has
Flair ready to kill Hennig, so the wrestling was out the window
before the match began, effectively killing the match for me.
* Scott Hall beat Lex Luger by DQ: Larry Zbyszko called the match
fairly. He ended up cancelling his pro-Hall decision upon seeing a
replay, which only led to more NWO screwiness, with everybody left
laying. This builds to that Hall vs. Zbyszko match that everybody
is just dying to see.
* Randy Savage beat Diamond Dallas Page in a falls count anywhere
match: More brawling all over. Little wrestling. I was
disappointed, but my expectations were not too high. Kimberley
dragged Elizabeth away. Page had to be stretchered out. They
brawled in the makeshift graveyard.
* Roddy Piper beat Hulk Hogan in a cage match: Piper got a sleeper
win again. There were a lot of fake Stings. They didn't seem to
know what rules they wanted the match to adhere to. Hogan seemed
to try harder than ever before, but still sucked. It was an
absolutely terrible match.
I know there are going to be people who judge the show by its main
event and say it was amongst the worst of the year. By that measure,
it was. But the first three matches were given a fair share of time
and were all solid. Rey vs. Eddie is a match of the year contender for
any fair-minded fan. I can't even drop the overall rating to a thumbs
in the middle.
RAW on 10/20/97 featured a few good matches, but nothing stellar by
any means. Shawn Michaels faced Owen Hart in the best match of the
show, marred by surrounding story lines which add so much
interference. Taka Michinoku pinned Yoshihiro Tajiri in a very short
lightheavyweight match. Taka is still the only star of the division.
Taka Michinoku finally signed a three-year deal with the company.
Brian Christopher, who they keep pushing as the star of the division
despite it being a mistake, IMO, lost to Marc Mero quickly and
decisively, which will hopefully be easily forgotten when they start
pushing him to the finals of the upcoming tournament.
Jeff Jarrett debuted in a "shoot" interview, lambasting Eric Bischoff
and Vince McMahon for never using him correctly. He correctly
suggested that Steve McMichael was a crummy opponent that hindered
him, but somehow managed to forget that he wasn't able to get over
working against Dean Malenko either. Both in his previous WWF stint
and his WCW stint, he's been a solid mid-carder. He's had one great
match against Shawn Michaels, but, heck, Michaels is the Ric Flair of
the late 1990s, seemingly able to have great matches against a broom.
It's hard to get too excited about his challenges to the upper echelon
wrestlers and his addition to the mix.
The lowlight of RAW was the return to the race-baiting angles. We were
led to believe that Michaels & Helmsley, now dubbed Degeneration X,
destroyed the NOD's dressing room, with racial epithets included,
trying to hook it on the Hart Foundation. The whole storyline comes
off as cheap and very low class - disappointing booking.
RAW on 10/27/97 continued the sad racism angle, with every mention
pulling down the WWF a little more. Sigh. Bret Hart faced Ken Shamrock
in the best match of the night, with a screwy TV finish. The Marc Mero
as boxer gimmick seemed to be over as he threw in some high spots for
the first time since his return. I'm thankful. Jeff Jarrett continued
his "shoot" interviews, saying that the top handful of guys in WCW are
all over forty. That's true, but the WWF has some old horses too. WCW
still likely has to have the better ratio of old to young because of
the depth of their roster. Jeff says he could have a great match with
Shawn Michaels. Well, duh, so could Undertaker. The closing match
featured the LOD vs. the Boricuas, really hurting Jarrett's
assertation that ability is the yardstick in the WWF.
Nitro on 10/20/97 was the first show to air on TSN in Canada.
Unfortunately, we only got one-and-half hours of the show. Still, we
did get to see the best match of the Monday night war this night, with
Eddy Guerrero facing Chris Benoit. The editing on the show was
atrocious. When they cut to a commerical during Curt Hennig vs. Dean
Malenko, they returned to a segment much later in the TNT broadcast,
so Canadian viewers never saw those guys again and never heard about
the finish. Booker T looked great in a singles match, working against
Lex Luger of all people, which means Booker T must be damn good.
It's no secret that WCW is trying to take the high road in the Monday
night wars. While the WWF airs the word "ass," has a racism storyline,
and shows Shawn Michaels' butt, WCW has banned borderline profane
language, the crotch chop that has become in vogue, and even killed
Syxx's bronco buster.
There is a lot of speculation that Eric Bischoff let Jeff Jarrett to
warn anybody else with great aspirations that they are expendable. And
it is true. WCW's talent base is so broad now that they can afford to
lose a wrestler here and there without any impact. Just to make a
similar point, WCW has pushed Bill Goldberg as a strong, silent
shootfighter, effectively turning him into their Ken Shamrock without
spending anywhere near the money that Shamrock would cost.
Nitro on 10/27/97 was a hot show following the PPV the night before.
Once again, Canadian viewers were cut out a little, this time getting
two hours of a three hour broadcast. But we also got the best match of
the Monday night wars this night, perhaps a toss up between Eddie
Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit vs. Dave Finlay. The show
built to a match between Hulk Hogan and Diamond Dallas Page, who
accepted an open challenge. Of course, the NWO hit the ring when
things turned bleak for Hogan, with a fake Sting coming in, and the
real Sting eventually cleaning house. All of the fake Sting stuff has
gotten way past old, but the anticipation for Sting vs. Hogan seems to
beat out any match in recent history. They are very smartly starting
the build for that match early. The November PPV already has a
tremendous arena advance. Hopefully, they won't screw up the hype for
Starrcade by starting out this soon.
- New Japan has a major show at Fukuoka Dome tonight (11/02/97) with
Shinjiro Otani facing Chris Benoit for the J Crown.
- The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/09/97. Tentative line-up has:
* Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF Title
* Owen Hart vs. Steve Austin for the IC Title
It's somewhat unclear whether Austin will be able to work this show.
- WCW has World War III on 11/23/97. Tentative line-up has:
* Three-ring, sixty-man battle royal, with the winner earning a WCW
Title shot at SuperBrawl in February
* Ric Flair vs. Curt Hennig for the US Title
* Steve McMichael vs. Bill Goldberg
Since its inception, the three-ring battle royal has been a horrible
idea for a PPV event, since quality wrestling does not occur for the
hour that this match takes. Lord knows that both North American
promotions have no trouble delivering some bad matches to us each
time, but to make them so long really kills the show.
- The WWF has a PPV on 12/07/97.
- WCW has Starrcade on 12/28/97. Tentative line-up has:
* Sting vs. Hulk Hogan for the WCW Title
- All Japan had a major show at Budokan Hall on 10/21/97 with
Mitsuharu Misawa successfully defending the Triple Crown against Kenta
Kobashi.
- Yokozuna returns to the WWF this month. Del Wilkes is out with a
serious tricep injury.
- As one might have guessed based on the snippets of information
released about the company's financial state, All Japan Women
officially filed for bankruptcy on 10/21/97. It's a tremendously sad
news item to me. On the weekend preceding the announcement, I was in
Toronto and managed to watch some AJW TV from this year. Even though
it was not at the level of years gone by, it was still amongst the
best products in the world. Some of the matches had a garbage
wrestling edge to them, but the non-garbage portions were filled with
incredibly solid wrestling, separating the promotion even in this
style from ECW, FMW, and the like.
- The Observer reports that WCW's talent budget will increase by
$8-million in 1998.
- - RAW 10/27 with a 4.32 rating against a 2.29 rating.
The detailed ratings are a click away.
- The PPV buy rates of the past six months (year or so) show that the
WWF has an average buy rate of 0.59 (0.52) and average gross of
$1.51-million ($1.32-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of
0.69 (0.67) and average gross of $2.12-million ($2.02-million).
The details as they stand are available.
- Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If
you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request.
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Thanks to: Masaki Aso.
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